Austerity triggers novel protests in Portugal
撙節政策在葡萄牙引發全新抗議方式

People rest by the seaside at a beach in the Southern Portuguese province of Algarve on March 10.民眾三月十日在葡萄牙南部阿爾加維海邊休息。

Photo: Reuters照片：路透

A Portuguese revolutionary song from 40 years ago is haunting the bailed-out country’s government. Anti-austerity protesters are hounding senior officials by loudly singing at public events a celebrated tune from the 1974 Carnation Revolution. They have managed to silence some of their targets, including the prime minister when he was trying to give a speech in Parliament.

After winter weather discouraged street protests and with strikes petering out amid falling income, dissenters in Portugal have formed civic movements which have come up with new ways of retaliating against their leaders’ unpopular policies.

“There’s a broad feeling of powerlessness” among aggrieved Europeans, says Antonio Costa Pinto, a political scientist at Lisbon University’s Institute of Social Science. “With few resources, (the civic movements) can make a big impact.”

The recent mischief is needling politicians who are viewed as deaf to appeals for less hardship. “It helps achieve an aim, which is to grind down the government,” said Costa Pinto.

Protesters recently sang the folk song Grandola, Vila Morena (Grandola, Dusky Town) from the public gallery when the prime minister was addressing Parliament, forcing him to stop and wait for them to finish.